Thread: Dream Control: the complete tutorial

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Forced Control:
Aggressive impartation of will

Upside: Complete and total control
Downside: Loss of vividness/"concreteness" of dream.

Forced control is exactly what it sounds like, it can be best described as just exerting the whole of your will apon your dream. When you use this method of control your actually taking yourself a bit out of the dream and manipulating it then re-entering (I tell you this because you should know that this does actually make your dream very unstable).

Most people find it hard to simply say: "_____ will happen" and actually have something happen.
This is because they're doing it wrong. They don't yet understand the nature of the dream that they're in. Here's what you have to know about your dreams before you can use this method:

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Ok, some of you may remember this, its an edited version of something I had in a previous post (note: edited extensively, the picture is pretty much the only "unchanged thing )

To help you understand the principles behind this, I'll start with this picture of a bathroom, I want you to imagine yourself standing inside of it:


Now that you've imagined yourself standing in this bathroom, begin to think about where you are.
If you just came out of a hotel into this bathroom then your in a hotel right? Wrong... you see, in a dream you never really move, unless your expecting something to happen, it doesn't. If you were to walk out the door of that bathroom who says your going to end up in the hotel room you just walked out of?
Your subconscious does. It says: "I just walked into this room from the hotel so I go to the hotel again" therefore you would walk right into the hotel due to the expectation brought on from real life.

If this really was real life then there's no chance you could walk out of the bathroom and end up on a beach in Hawaii, but this is a dream, and dreams don't happen in places, so there would be no difference in you walking out into the hotel then there would be in you walking out into the water on a beach. yes, this is impossible in real life but you aren't in real life, your in a dream, the dream has no restraints, you don't have to spin to teleport, you don't have to move to fly, you don't have to exert any power whatsoever into any of the actions you do, because you aren't doing it, you just "are"

now back to the bathroom, why should that water faucet be there at all? why should the ground be there, why should there be walls there? the simple answer is that none of that really exists, its an illusion brought on by your brain to keep your mind busy while it makes repairs on your body, a dream is the farthest thing from a constant environment, its just memories of different experiences put together to create a pseudo reality for your mind to play in, normally in a dream most things are constants, but once the conscious mind wakes up you can begin to realize that nothing is what it seems.
If you were to grab that flower on the sink and smell it, what would it smell like? your first thought is it would smell like a flower, when in reality it wouldn't smell because there is no flower, thus you could make it smell like anything you wanted to just by barely thinking say, "wet dog" and activating your minds experiences of what wet dog smells like rather than what flower smells like, you would be smelling a wet dog.
Now put that flower down and touch the sink, think its going to be smooth? again the sink doesn't exist, until you touch it it has no previous experiences activated saying what its going to feel like, its just an optical illusion, so if you were to touch it expecting it to feel like bread, it would be bread, it may still look like a rock but it will conform and feel exactly like bread

with this in mind you can begin to see that a dream is non existent, all that exists within it is your consciousness, without you the dream is nothing, it isn't some other plane of existence you visit, its not anything, the dream is you and your experiences, it exists only for you and by you, nothing can visit and take it over without taking "you" over (evil spirits some see)
If you see a giant 500 ft beast ravaging a town just remember that that beast is only what you make it, if you wanted it that beast could be a small poodle, or a loaf of bread maybe, perhaps even a sheet of Saran wrap, its what you want, and that alone

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What you just read is the essence of the forced control technique. Every time you want something to happen just remember what your dream really is, and you'll find that you can easily do absolutely anything you want by simply changing whatever it is you want changed.

In-Depth Look At This Method:

Forcing control is something that should only be done when 100% necessary. Awhile back this was all I did to control my dreams, I felt that it was the only thing I'd ever need.
Soon I began to notice my dreams were less vivid, They started getting shorter, and shorter, and then even shorter. It got to the point that the second I got into the dream it would end without notice.

The reason that happened was because I had taken myself out of my dreams. I began to see them as fragile pieces of putty that I could re-arrange at will any time I felt the need. Though this is true, you should never get to that point, what happens is that you say: "darn, I hope I don't wake up" and guess what? nothing you do after that second will stop you from waking.
("darn, I hope I don't wake up every time I enter an LD!")


Use this sparingly (only use it to get out of horrific situations), it really takes away the "realness" that you experience in your dreams. Sometimes you just have to set back and enjoy the illusion (and all that comes with it).

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Passive Control:
Working with the environment

Upside: Dreams much more stable; Much more realistic
Downside: Control less "direct" than Forced controlling; some things impossible to control


If you just read the forced section then you'll be happy to know that this is much shorter and easier to comprehend .


Passive control is much more natural than its forced cousin. It involves guile and cunning to get around the obstacles that you may encounter in your lucid wonderings.

The principal is simple: find a way to work with the laws your dream already has to get what you want. Don't ever warp reality (unless you use some magical device that you happen to find).
What I mean by "warp reality" is don't ever do something and tell yourself "I can do it because this is just a dream"

View your dream as a whole other plain of consciousness.
Not as a "I'm leaving my body and astral traveling" plain, but as what it is. The level of dreams. The place you go to every night when you close your eyes. It does exist (even if only because you on some level make it exist) and even though your subconscious is the thing thats making everything around you, who cares? Its still here, and you don't have to keep thinking about it for it to remain.
It's a world as real as the world your in now (when its here).
Just look at it like that.

Ok heres some examples of "naturally"/"passively" controlling your dream:

• I'm standing in my house but yet I REALLY want to be having sex with my crush right now. What do I do?
  Ok, this is pretty simple. close your front door for a second. Now think up a reason why your crush would come to your house (lets say, she/he was wondering if you had some sugar).
  Now act like that scenario (him/her is coming to get some sugar) is happening right this second.
  Open the door. Guess what? he/she's standing there with a cup in his/her hand!
  
  

  .
• I'm in the middle of a field and really want to fly over it. How can I do this and still be within the bounds of reality?
  Think about this for a second. Whats the most believable thing that you would attribute to being able to fly? radiation? Realize that that field of roses is actually an old A-bomb testing ground. Maybe you would be more likely believe that aliens left a pill that makes the user experience antigravity? theres one on the ground beside you (oh look! even a glass of water).

Don't make things appear, think up reasons why they should be there (aliens thought roses were cool awhile back, dropped pill. etc etc)

Ok a couple more examples for good measure:

• How do I turn into a wolf?
  Your a werewolf.
  
  
  .
  How do I make a building disappear?
  look away, look back. WHOA! God just decided that he didn't like that buildings roof.

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The trick is to make it something that you believe will work.
Always keep in mind that dreams aren't perfectly like real life, you can get away with alot more than you could probably imagine (without forcing anything at all)

In-Depth Look At This Method:

Though while reading this you may ask: "Why don't I just force everything? seems alot easier", I can tell you from first hand experience two things:

1. When you passively control your surroundings the results are alot more believable (when you force stuff the results seem very fake)
   
   and
2. When you passively affect your dreams they have alot more meaning. You get to fully experience them in the way they were meant to be (and you can really feel the difference on every level)

Passiveness doesn't affect your dreams stability, it doesn't make them shorter, they aren't less vivid, and they're just all around 100x more fun.
None of that can be said for Forcing control.

O_O........................ Wow I see why it took 3 hours, you should get it moved to the tutorials section. Very good contribution to the site BillyBo.

hmm i wonder why my LDs are getting shorter

Soon I began to notice my dreams were less vivid, They started getting shorter, and shorter, and then even shorter. Soon I would open my eyes the second I got into the dream and it would end.

The reason that happened was because I had taken myself out of my dreams. I began to see them as fragile pieces of putty that I could re-arrange at will at any time I felt the need. (though this is true) You should never get to this point, what happens is that you say: "darn, I hope I don't wake up" and guess what? nothing you do after that second will stop you from waking.
("darn, I hope I don't wake up every time I enter an LD!")

O_O and there is the answer! :O (funny thing is, i was just thinking about why extrememly recently lol)

time to make the switch to passive

That's really helpful, and I find passive control interesting. I've always been interested in the psychological aspect of dream control--it's basically tricking your own mind.

hmm...well i've only had two lucid dreams, but i find that I can make objects appear just by expecting them to be behind a door and opening it, or expecting it to be in my pocket and reaching for it. are you saying that, to be safe, i should find a reason for it to be there (using God, aliens, etc.)?

Wow billybob, I just need to get this out of my system: "YOU ARE A FUCKING LEGEND!" although this is what I've been doing for ages, cept I used to use the forced control, which made my dreams get shorter, and WAY less vivid, so I switched to something like your passive control, also makes the dream more interesting if you leave some control to your mind. Anyways, I'll definitely try that passive method next time I want to have lucid sex.:p

Great tutorial! I can identify with the forced lucid happening's being "fake". Everytime I've tried to make someone/something appear, they've been there, but I've not been able to interact with them, they've been like a cardboard cutout or something.

I will definitely try the passive way, seems like a great idea and actually easier than trying to force it.

Simply excellent BillyBob!!

Thanks so much for sharing!!
.

about disappearing things in a dream



I've been wondering about this a lot lately. While it is so easy to create things with your mind (especially in a dream), it can be a bit hard to make them disappear... why?

Simply because we a not machines. If you had in your mind, say, a red car, even if you make it disappear, you will not make it disappear completely. Why? Because your mind cannot simply tell itself to "forget" that information. You could even get to the false illusion that you do no remember it anymore, but the information is still there, spreaded over your brain, and it will still influece what you think. That's the beauty of our mind called subconsciousness.
If you will the image of that red car out of your head, you could actualy do it, but it won't be erased totally: e.g. the colour of the car would be present in something else. That's how your subconscious can affect your consciousness. Unlike many think, what we call subconsciousness is not like a "hidden consciousness". It is the leaks and streams which affect your mind, without you knowing or controlling it.

The disability to make something disappear from your head can be moderate, but there are many problems involving it (schizophrenia, traumas, phobias, spontaneous loss of memory and some others). It may take some time in life before you can actually learn how to properly control your thoughts and e.g. make that scene from that horror movie get out of your head.


Finally, the million-dollar question: but then, how can I make something disappear from my mind?
The answer is simple to explain but hard to do: canalize that energy, that thought into something else. Take off your attention from the red car and take a closer look at the green tree just behind it. By focusing more on the tree, your mind will take that as priority, and the thoughts about the red car will end.
Again this applies to other situations. Chills down your spine just to think about that horror movie? Fear of facing mr. random-evil-guy?? Simple! Think of mr. random-evil-guy in your grandma's clothes. Then chain yoru thoughts and start focusing more on the clothes, and finaly, think only of your grandma. By changing your focus progressively, not only will you get mr. random-evil-guy out of your head, but also will make sure your mind doesn't bring your attention back to him.




This knowledge will help you not only with dream control, but also with whatever situation it proves useful. Once again: creating things in yoru mind is extremely easy; making them vanish is the hard part.

bear hugs, Kromoh

does the dream become more and more real if you come up with more realistic scenarios for doing what you want? If I wanted a new car, could I imagine that I had recently bought it? would that be passive control?

omg, thanks billybob, i had a great lucid because i read your post! i even was like "ha, i read a post last night on how to do this" when talking to another dc because i made something magically appear.

Ah! That explains why I have been waking up so soon. You put to words what I have been trying to figure out. It seems like when I try to do too much with my dream it wakes me up but if I let the dream flow and let the things I want to happen happen rather then force them the dream will last much longer. I never thought of finding a reason this or that will happen I just thought I had to will it. The harder I concentrate to make something happen the sooner I will awaken. There was a time I tried to force someone to appear in a dream and I felt like I was going to awaken so I forgot about that and focused on an object in the dream and viola. The dream continued for quite some time.

Great, great thread. Thanks for posting!

You, sir, are a genius.

Wow, great tutorial! I don't really have problems controling the dream itself, but I cannot control the DCs. Maybe the passive control could help me with that.

great tutorial! I remember when you complained you reached the end of lucid dreaming. Its kinda like when you over analaze something, you miss the point! good to see you figured out what went wrong and made this awesome tutorial

in short we can say working against your own subconscious gives rise to limitations in dreams - including lack of vividness.

consciously telling the dream to do something doesnt change your own subconscious thoughts that that something is completely illogical or impossible. thats why passive control works when forced control might not.

I remember I had trouble levitating items when I demanded the dream that I levitate items. Nothing happened. The items barely budged and even then, maybe I only imaged they did Xb

after that I thought maybe I need to do something else to make my psychokinesis work. And thats when I realized I wasnt treating my pscyhokinesis as..psychokinesis!

I imagined I had this invisible energy, that fires out into the air and latches onto the item like a hand - in that dream I could move items as easily as I can move my fingers. Since I saw the anime AKIRA at a young age, my subconscious was already wired as to how psychokinesis works - its energy, not a verbal command. I couldnt trick my own subconscious after 15 years as to how psychokinesis works or doesnt work.

So using a verbal command wouldnt work anymore than commanding your own legs "alright legs, RUN!". We dont command our body to move right? Your subconscious knows this all too well.

I can run wild and fast in a dream if I just take the moment to recall the weight of my body transfering to my feet and to the floor. My subconsious remembers running so well it even adds wind without me asking.

your subconscious isnt necessarily smart, technically it doesnt really think - thats why you can pull completely random items out of your pocket that werent there a minute ago. In the case of the dream subconscious all it cares for is if an item can be found in a pocket. It asks, 'can an item be found in a pocket? Yes' thats why it works.

Can you fly to the the moon in a dream? Yes. But can you walk to the moon in a dream? That is SOOOO working against our subconscious knowledge that walking is always on solid ground, that most dreamers here would have a hard time walking to the moon without a staircase.

Thanks for sharing this! I too have been enjoying the awesomness of passive control. I found my dreams were loosing vibrancy everytime i attemted to control it so i set out to enjoy my dreams more for what they are. The passive observer. My moving around the scene that is created and interact with what is created instead of attempting to control or create things. I discovered that by simply picking things up, feeling, smelling and tasting, created a world vibrant and vivid and just amazing to be in.

Billybob, I'm pretty damn sure there is no word in any language to describe the awesomeness contained within you. So I made one! Superlawesome.

All extremely over-the-top unneeded praising aside, I have a question. Why should we not just simply go "This is a dream, so I can do this" as the rationale for our passive control? I mean, we aren't forcing our dreams to do something purely through our will, tightening our jaw as we concentrate on our task with a vein popping out of our head. Lol. We just realize that since it is a dream, we can do anything. Isn't that trick good enough? I mean for certain things, I can see the whole "They are behind a door" better than just creating them out of thin air in most cases. But do you mean that by telling ourself it is a dream it'll be less realistic and take away from the experience or something?

The passive control will be useful to me since I'm back from a stupid dry spell that seem so common amongst people nowadays. Two lucid dreams in the past three days! And, of course, in the first one I attempted to force create stuff in my hands right in front of my eyes, I guess not being lucid for a while really made my thought process in dreams all screwy... I wasn't thinking clearly I guess. Or should I say, I wasn't thinking lucidly! Hah! Hahaha! I'm so clever...

lol i have used the passive method without realizing.. i can asure that i had this dream where a mass killer armed with a knife was chasing me....the funny part was that after i got tired of running away due to the fact that the murderous dude never semmed to disapear and i ran and ran and he was still there chasing me what i did was just talked to the killer and somehow i got to convince him that i was his brother lol and he just stopped...lol i actually goto stand next to him without him hurting me lol..anyways what i said was "hey ur my brother" and cassamm~!! lol i still had in the back of my mind that he ould just kill me any minute but i guesss i just fooled and manipulated my subconscious mind with commands or speech what ever///lol cool im gonna experiment on making and convincing myself intead{{{passive method is the most effective}}}

Wow! This is a great tutorial BB, and when I get more LD's, I'll be sure to use this! Thanks!

Amazing tutorial. Brilliant. I do have a question though. You suggest to only use passive control for the most part, which I entirely agree with, but is passive control the idea that you have to make a semi-realistic reason for why things are happening?

Like would it still be passive control if I said that my lucid dreams take me to a different realm, which is the only safe place to use my superpowers. So as long as I'm here, I have super powers. Would that still count as passive control as long as I don't alter the environment in a direct way? Like I like being able to fly. Without using a jetpack or anything, just jump up and fly. But clearly that's not realistic.

But with my "i have superpowers" mentality, that's justified. My 'superpowers' don't extend to being able to alter where I am or teleport. Although, would teleporting/reshaping the environment via body spinning be passive or forced?

"But with my "i have superpowers" mentality, that's justified. My 'superpowers' don't extend to being able to alter where I am or teleport. Although, would teleporting/reshaping the environment via body spinning be passive or forced?"

I think the general concept is to satisfy your subconscious. It doesn't really take much - think of non-lucid dreams. Often you will realize when you wake that your dream had some very hare-brained logic to it. However, this is apparently enough. Simply saying "I have the ability to fly because I have superpowers, so I will now fly" instead of "FLY! LET ME FLY!" might be enough to satisfy your subconsciousness's demand for 'reality'.

I like your description of why forced is a dangerous route! I never considered it that way, I will certainly let my dreams flow when i achieve lucidity.

This works, too. My last lucid i became lucid by appearing in the bathroom in this thread and i remembered it was from a LDing thread and i became lucid!